Green peas have been known to the Slavs since the time of Kievan Rus, and the ancient Greeks ate it already in the 4th-3rd centuries BC, then it spread throughout Europe and retained its popularity to this day. Let's talk in more detail about this legume, its composition and beneficial properties.

Peas are a genus of herbaceous plants from the legume family. The most common and sought-after species in our latitudes peas, it contains slightly flattened or spherical peas of green color. Young peas have delicate taste and sweet aftertaste. However, for those who have not tried fresh young green pea, have the opportunity to use it during the year in frozen or canned form. Although there are fewer vitamins and minerals in such peas, it is still useful and has a beneficial effect on our body and health in general.

Green peas have a valuable composition and, despite their small size, peas contain a significant amount of vitamins and minerals necessary for our body.

Composition of green peas (per 100g) such: water -77.7g, carbohydrates - 14.3g, fats - 0.3g, proteins - 5.2g, fiber - 5.4g; B vitamins (B9, B2, B1, B3, B5, B6), E, ​​C, A, H, K. In addition, green peas are very rich in potassium and phosphorus, as well as calcium, magnesium, manganese, sodium and other mineral substances.

calories in green peas equal to about 82 kcal / 100g. Due to their low calorie content, green peas are classified as dietary products and are recommended for those who want to lose weight.

For its delicate and sweetish taste in cooking, green peas occupy a special place, giving dishes with its participation a special piquancy. It is used in kitchens different countries and quite successfully. Fresh young peas are eaten on their own, but canned or frozen ones are used to prepare dietary vegetable soups, puree, salads, vinaigrettes, as part of vegetable mixtures. It is often used as a side dish for main courses or as a filling for pies and casseroles. Peas go well with poultry and fish (for example,), giving some zest to the main dish.

The benefits of green peas

The dietary fiber contained in green peas makes it useful for people suffering from frequent constipation. Studies of green peas have shown that green peas help lower blood cholesterol levels, and the content of significant amounts of iron and antioxidants, help strengthen immunity and reduce the risk of developing various forms of cancer.

AT folk medicine decoction of pea seeds has a diuretic effect and promotes the removal of stones from the kidneys.

Besides, regular use Peas are useful for reducing the risk of developing cataracts and diseases of the nervous system, normalizing carbohydrate metabolism and increasing the energy reserves of the body.

Green peas provide the body with nutrients, in particular potassium and phosphorus, necessary for healthy and strong bones.

Green peas are a source of B vitamins, which are essential for cardiovascular health.

Green peas have contraindications for use since it can cause bloating in some people, so they should not overindulge in peas and other legumes.

It has a glorious and ancient history. Its homeland is the countries of the Middle East, India and China.

In ancient Rome, peas were cooked simple meals to feed slaves, poor families used it as food.

At a later time, the countries of the Mediterranean and Europe learned about peas. This product has become a popular, traditional food among the Germans, French and Spaniards.

In Russia, peas are known and loved. He gained popularity at the time of the baptism of Russia. Since then, it has been used as a lenten food during numerous fasts.

In the 17th century, the Dutch developed a brain variety of culture. Such peas are characterized by rapid ripening, contain an increased amount of sugar. This variety is still used in canning, has a delicate, sweetish taste.

Green peas - beneficial features :

Peas have a whole complex useful substances, vitamins, minerals. Contains in its composition potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, iodine.

The product contains many vitamins: A, B1, B2, PP, C, E. Peas are also rich in proteins, mineral salts, and starch.

The elements contained in it therapeutic effect on the human body. It is useful to use it for diseases of the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver. The use of pea grains is especially recommended for the treatment and prevention of anemia.

Specialists - nutritionists are advised to follow diets that include pea dishes. The product is especially indicated for obesity, to restore the processes of digestion and metabolism.

Poultices are made from pea flour to treat boils, abscesses, and other skin diseases.

The leaves of the plant contain citric and oxalic acids. Infusions of them are useful for removing small stones, sand from the kidneys and gallbladder.

A large amount of fiber was found in the grains, the use of which helps to remove toxins, as well as cleanse the body. The nicotinic acid contained in them stabilizes the level of cholesterol in the blood, reduces the risk of malignant tumors.

Recently, scientists have proven the fact that pea seeds are a real medicine. They contain large amounts of antioxidants. Due to its composition, peas contribute to the relief and treatment of heart attack, hypertension, and cancer.

In addition to their healing qualities, peas are simply delicious and nutritious. Mass is prepared from it meatless dishes: appetizers, salads, vegetable vinaigrettes. It is added to pie fillings, casseroles are made, used as a side dish, soups, cereals, mashed potatoes are prepared.

Try to cook simple, delicious, healthy meals, which include green peas. The beneficial properties of its grains will soon give you strength and health!

Pea mash

To make puree you will need: 1.5 cups of yellow peas, salt, sugar, butter, onions, carrots, flour.

Soak the peas in cold water from evening to night. In the morning, rinse the grains, fill with clean water, put on fire.

Cook until tender over low heat, stirring constantly. While cooking, add salt to taste and a little sugar. Boil for a long time until all the peas are boiled.

Separately, finely chop the onion, grate the carrots. Fry them for butter, add 1 tsp. flour, stir.

Add onions and carrots to boiled peas, stir, push with a crush to make mashed potatoes.

Pea salad

You will need: 1 tbsp. peas, 3 medium-sized pickled cucumbers, 1 onion, vegetable oil, salt, black ground pepper, greens.

Pour cold water over peas for several hours. After that, rinse, fill with new cold water and cook over low heat until tender.

Peel the cucumbers from the skin and seeds, cut into small cubes. Transfer the finished peas to a dish, add cucumbers, finely chopped onions, pour over vegetable oil, mix, sprinkle with herbs and serve.

As you can see, the well-known, ordinary peas have a lot of positive qualities. It is not expensive, but it has useful, healing properties. Dishes from it are delicious, easy to prepare. Therefore, use green peas more often, the beneficial properties of its grain in diet food and for the health of the body.

Peas are one of the oldest legumes cultivated by mankind. One of the most favorite spring-summer delicacies for children and adults is young, sweet and fresh green peas, fresh from the garden, so it would be useful to find out what else this plant can please us with, in addition to excellent taste.

Taste and appearance

Bright green peas are enclosed in an oblong, cellular pod, consisting of two halves of no less saturated color. Young legumes have a sweetish, delicate taste, peas are juicy and soft. In cooking, brain and sugar varieties are the most valuable, they are frozen and preserved for the winter.

Chemical composition

Green peas contain few organic acids, but almost the entire list of vitamins and minerals necessary for the body, as well as fiber and natural sugars.

vitamins

Peas contain vitamins A, B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B9, C, E, H, PP.

Minerals

  • Macronutrients: potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, chlorine.
  • Trace elements: aluminum, boron, vanadium, iron, iodine, cobalt, manganese, copper, molybdenum, nickel, tin, selenium, fluorine, chromium, zinc.

Product calorie content

There are only 55 kilocalories per one hundred grams of the product.

Proteins fats carbohydrates

  • Proteins - 5 g.
  • Fats - 0.2 g.
  • Carbohydrates - 8.3 g.

Did you know? Austrian biologist, botanist and Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel, conducting experiments on peas, proved the existence of genes and the transmission of hereditary traits by them. Despite the fact that in 1865 his discovery was skeptical, today the scientist is called the founder of the science of heredity.

What are the benefits of fresh green peas

Nutritionists talk about the benefits of the product, and traditional healers use plant greens in numerous medicinal recipes.

For adults

The product is useful and even recommended by doctors for people with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney diseases, beriberi. Dishes with legumes are useful for cleansing the blood of cholesterol, cleansing the liver of toxins, nitrates, and drug breakdown products. Peas are considered a prophylactic against atherosclerosis, hypertension, obesity, bone fragility. The composition, saturated with minerals and vitamins, normalizes the work of the endocrine system, the hormonal background, which will favorably affect the health of the reproductive system.

For kids

The product can be introduced into baby food from eight months, if the baby has already tried vegetables, cottage cheese, meat. It is undesirable to give peas raw at such a young age, it is better after heat treatment puree, for example. From a year and a half, you can give fresh in small portions.
The advantage of young peas over old ones is in a smaller amount of fiber that is heavy for the delicate digestive tract, and it also has less allergenicity. The product is useful for the growth of muscle, bone and connective tissues, joint mobility. Thanks to iodine, it normalizes the work thyroid gland improves brain function. Peas saturate the body with vitamins and minerals, strengthening the immune, cardiovascular, central nervous system, and have a positive effect on the digestive tract.

Is it possible to use peas for pregnant and lactating

Fresh green peas are saturated with many elements useful for the normal course of pregnancy and fetal development: folic acid, magnesium, potassium, calcium, selenium, zinc and others. Therefore, women in position can and should eat the product, however, you should not overdo it so as not to cause flatulence.

The same composition of nutrients will help a nursing mother recover from childbirth, protect immunity and replenish the supply of vitamins and minerals. Enter into the diet fresh product follows in small portions, observing the behavior of the baby.
When using a frozen product, do not defrost it in the microwave, it is better to leave it for a while to defrost naturally. canned peas may be harmful due to the presence of chemical additives in it: preservatives, stabilizers and others.

Harm and contraindications

Purines in the composition of the culture, when destroyed, form uric acid, therefore, it is not recommended to use it in such conditions:

  • gout;
  • colitis;
  • uric acid diathesis;
  • urolithiasis disease.

Important! Overuse peas can cause bloating, heaviness in the stomach and increased gas formation.

Rules for choosing a quality product

The ripening period of the culture begins in May-June, depending on the climate in the region. When choosing, it is better to give preference to pods in which peas retain their juiciness and useful elements longer, and not to an already purified product. The following qualities speak of freshness:

  • bright green color;
  • absence of yellow and dark spots;
  • soft and elastic skin of the pod.
fresh peas stored in the refrigerator, without shaking out of the pods, the period is about a week. The peeled product is stored for up to six months in the refrigerator in a convenient container. In this case, the lid of the container does not need to be tightly closed to allow air to enter.

How to save peas for the winter

Freeze


Conservation

Ingredients(for six cans of 0.5 l):

  • green peas - about 2,800 kg;
  • sugar -1 tbsp. l.;
  • salt - 1 tbsp. l.;
  • 9% vinegar - 100 ml.

Cooking:


Did you know? The appearance of green peas on their tables, the French owe to Marie de Medici. The future queen brought with her both personal chefs and own recipes dishes, where the product took not the last place.

More about the benefits: how to make a mask from young peas

The cosmetic properties of the culture are due to the presence of beauty vitamins: A, C, E, as well as a large number of minerals involved in the structure and regeneration of cells, including skin and nail plates, which have a beneficial effect on the condition of the hair.

For skin

Mask for dry skin. Puree from two tablespoons of boiled product mixed with the same amount apple juice and yolk. Apply the mass on the face in a thin layer, rinse off when the mixture dries and begins to tighten the skin. After washing, apply a light texture nourishing cream. For severely dry skin, the mask is used three times a week for a month.
For normal skin. Grind the dried peas into flour, mix one tablespoon of flour with a teaspoon olive oil and yolk. The mass is applied to the face and neck for twenty minutes, washed off with cool water. Can be applied twice a week.

For oily skin. Grind two tablespoons of peas in a puree, add two tablespoons of whey, mix. Apply to cleansed face and neck for twenty minutes. Wash off with warm water.

Green peas are a starch-free vegetable highly valued by nutritionists. By its properties, young peas are similar to meat. At the same time, unlike the protein in the composition of meat, pea protein is of a higher quality, so the product is ready for consumption in its raw form.

The word "pea" has ancient Indian roots, so in Sanskrit "garshati" means "grated", because once peas were rubbed to get flour.

Green peas are the first food crop that people began to grow. Archaeologists have proven that this happened about 5,000 years ago in China or Egypt. But the real discoverers of peas were the Dutch, who in the 16th century brought this vegetable. And if earlier peas were consumed mainly dried, today they are more in demand fresh or canned.

The main reason for the popularity and wide distribution of green peas is its nutritional value, as well as unpretentiousness and the possibility of growing in various climatic zones.

There are several legends about the origin of peas. The first says that when God punished people for their sins with hunger, the Mother of God wept, and her tears turned into peas. According to another legend, when Adam, expelled from paradise, plowed the ground for the first time, he wept, and peas grew where his tears fell.

Composition of green peas

The main reason people love green peas lies in a large set of useful nutrients and minerals. Green pea contains a large amount of antioxidants, including flavonoids, carotenoids, phenolic acids and polyphenols. Among the vitamins, the highest content are vitamin C, thiamine and pantothenic acid.

100 g of fresh green peas contains the following substances:

vitamins

Vitamin B9

Vitamin PP

Vitamin B5

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B2

Vitamin B1

Vitamin A

Vitamin C

Vitamin E

Vitamin K

Vitamin H

11 health benefits of green peas

  1. Reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes

    Green peas, due to the large amount of fiber and protein in their composition, slow down the process of sugar breakdown. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties help to avoid or even reverse insulin resistance. In addition, one serving of green peas contains more than 13% of the recommended daily intake of magnesium, and studies show that every 100g of magnesium in the body reduces the risk of developing diabetes 2 types by about 15%.

  2. healthy bones

    One serving of peas contains 44% vitamin K, which promotes the accumulation of calcium in the bones, thereby helping to prevent their weakening. The B vitamins present in green peas reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

  3. Healthy heart and blood vessels

    The niacin or vitamin PP in green peas helps in reducing the creation of triglycerides and very low density lipoprotein, which leads to an increase in "bad" cholesterol. Due to this property, green peas serve as a preventive measure in the development of atherosclerotic plaques, heart attack and stroke, and also helps to normalize blood pressure.

  4. healthy digestion

    The composition of green peas includes polyphenols, studies of the properties of which show their effectiveness in the treatment of oncological diseases of the digestive system. In particular, researchers in Mexico claim that eating at least one serving of green peas daily can significantly reduce the risk of stomach cancer.

  5. Healthy immune system

    Green peas contain vitamin A, which strengthens the mucous membranes and makes them resistant to viruses and bacteria that affect the body. In addition, peas contain more than 32% of the daily value of vitamin C, which, being a powerful antioxidant, helps fight free radicals and increases the body's resistance to disease.

  6. Thins the blood

    Due to the presence of omega-3 fatty acids in green peas, which are involved in the production of special hormones - prostaglandins, blood circulation improves and the likelihood of developing deep vein thrombosis decreases.

    7. A serving of green peas contains about 10% of the daily value of zinc. Thanks to this, eating a large amount of green peas will help to lose weight. This is because zinc is involved in metabolic processes, motivating the body to lose more calories in a shorter time. In addition, peas are low in fat and low in calories. Hence, this vegetable is a regular in vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets.

  7. Healthy skin and hair

    Numerous studies show that omega-3 fatty acids in green peas can improve hair structure, making them stronger, healthier. Also, the vegetable gives the skin a healthy look and is useful in the fight against skin aging. Antioxidants present in peas such as flavonoids, catechins, epicatechins, carotenoids, alpha-carotene and others help prevent the aging process of the skin and give it a natural healthy glow. Poultices are made from pea flour to treat boils, abscesses, and other skin diseases.

    8. Fresh pea pods are considered an excellent source of folic acid. Folates are essential for DNA synthesis inside the cell. Studies show that sufficient folic acid in foods for expectant mothers will help in preventing neural tube defects in newborn babies.

  8. healthy eyes

    Peas contain an adequate amount of antioxidants such as lutein, carotenes, zeaxanthin, as well as vitamin A. Vitamin A is one of the main nutrients that are necessary to maintain the health of mucous membranes, skin and eyes.

    9. Due to the presence of citric and oxalic acid in pea leaves, they are used in folk medicine for the preparation of infusions used to remove small stones, sand from the kidneys and gallbladder. Young green peas as well pea mash have diuretic properties. It has also been proven that peas help to eliminate radionuclides from the body. In addition to all this, nitrates do not accumulate in peas.

Contraindications to the use of green peas

Green peas, in addition to benefits, can also bring certain harm. But you should not be afraid, because a small amount of this green delicacy added to a dish cannot cause the development of any disease or cause significant harm. Still, you should not include the product in the diet when:

  • diuretic diathesis;
  • gout;
  • tendency to gas formation;
  • exacerbations of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
  • increased blood clotting.

Do not be afraid to use canned green peas. It is dangerous in exceptional cases: with spoilage, with overeating.

The world record for eating green peas was set in 1984. The record holder ate 7175 peas one at a time with the help of sticks in 60 minutes.

Green peas are the first canned vegetable.

Peas have been popular in Russia for a long time. Various folk sayings serve as proof of this, for example, the saying “it was under King Pea” means that it was in time immemorial.

Peas are an excellent fertilizer. During growth, nodules are formed on its roots, which accumulate atmospheric nitrogen, which is so necessary for plants.

What else is useful?

In the material of this article, we will talk about canned green peas and try to answer the most frequently asked questions of consumers: is there any benefit from canned green peas or can they harm the body?

Are there any contraindications to its use? What is the composition of the product? But first things first.

The culture of green peas is very widespread. Moreover, this culture is ancient.

And if earlier it was more consumed in dried form, now they prefer fresh and canned. Peas are unpretentious and grow well in different climatic zones.

What substances are contained

Without a doubt, this plant of the legume family is useful in its raw form. The protein product is widely distributed in all countries and replaces animal protein in the diet of vegetarians.

Its composition is very rich. Peas are a source of useful substances: vitamins, essential amino acids, trace elements, natural sugars.

More often, canned peas are eaten. Yes, it retains its green color, but does it lose its positive qualities? It turns out that useful properties are not lost during storage.

Peas are one of the most popular canned vegetable products, for the preparation of which varieties are used, created for this purpose. Its benefits include:

  • complete protein;
  • macro- and microelements necessary for the metabolic processes of the body;
  • vitamins: C, group B, carotene, fiber;
  • selenium and zinc, which have anticarcinogenic properties (i.e., properties that prevent the development of cancerous tumors).

Canned peas began a long time ago (as early as the 16th century), since then the technology has been aimed at maximizing the preservation of all substances contained in the product. Calorie content is low: 300 kcal per 100 grams of product.

Benefit and harm

In addition to nutritional value and undoubted taste, peas also have health benefits:

  • lowers cholesterol levels;
  • is an anti-cancer prophylactic;
  • has a positive effect on the skeletal system;
  • "helps" in the work of the immune system;
  • reduces the feeling of fatigue;
  • improves brain function;
  • relieves hangover.

Advice: during long-term storage, canned peas retain their beneficial properties well. Just like canned product it is used to make a wide range of dishes. Used in various menus, for example, dietary.

Peas are harmful to those who:

  • suffering from bloating or flatulence;
  • has bowel disease;
  • suffers from gout;
  • who has kidney problems.

But the harm is a hundredfold compensated by the benefit. Therefore, who does not have such problems, you can safely use fresh or canned peas.

What's in a tin can

When buying a jar of peas, we do not always study the packaging and expiration date, but in vain. Firstly, the purchased jar should not contain any additional ingredients, which is clearly visible in a glass jar.

Secondly, the list of ingredients is short: peas, salt, sugar, water. The date of manufacture is on the packaging: correct date: summer months. When the product was prepared in the autumn-winter period, then most likely, the dry peas were first steamed out, and then marinated. Everyone knows that peas do not ripen in winter.

It's important to know: no preservatives are required for cooking peas, and they should not be written on the package.

Pay attention to the GOST of the product - GOST 15842-90 and its grade. polka dots premium or "extra" is the most delicious.